Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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GIANTS

huge persons mentioned in the Bible. When Moses sent spies into Canaan to discover whether it was a suitable place for the Promised Land, the spies were frightened by "the enormous size" of the natives. "We felt like grasshoppers and so we seemed to them" (Numbers 13:32-33). These people were called Nephilim. Another group of so-called giants were the Rephaim, who lived in Moabite territory (Deuteronomy 2:10). Goliath was unquestionably the best-known gigantic figure in Scripture, because of his famous encounter with David, but he was a Philistine, not a member of a tribe of giants (I Samuel 17).